Tuesday, September 13, 2011

GAMESTOP JUMPING INTO TABLET MARKET

U.S. video game retailer GameStop will soon sell its own GameStop-branded Android tablet, president Tony Bartel recently told GamesIndustry. The company is not building a device from scratch and will instead re-brand an existing model. GameStop has not disclosed which manufacturer it partnered with but the company is testing the device in Dallas, Texas where Samsung Mobile is also based. “I don’t see any need to create a new one with the three hundred or so on the market already,” Bartel said. “We have a refurbishment center and we can bring in the product and pre-load certain games onto it. It’s an Android device.” The tablet is currently being called a “GameStop-certified gaming platform.”

“There’s not a lot of tablet/Android-based games for the consumer that are designed to use an external controller,” Bartel added, noting that the company has created a special controller that may be used with the device. “As it stands now, I think we’re seeing developer interest in developing immersive games that use the controller as well, but our first foray is to really be working with developers to create an install base of devices with the controller to allow them to develop immersive games.” The tablet will initially run mobile games but Bartel hopes to eventually stream console titles to to the device, too. GameStop expects to begin selling the tablet next year.